MCS College Council
October 7, 1999

In Attendance:
Susan Henry
Robert Swendsen
Richard McCullough
Sharon McCarl
David Owen
James Greenberg
Eric Grotzinger
Gordon Rule
Robert Suter
Amy Kennedy
Mingxin Xu
Karen Gibson
Lorraine Miller

I. PROPOSAL FOR NEW PHYSICS COURSE 33-224 STARS, GALAXIES AND THE
UNIVERSE (R. Swendsen)

The increasing diversity of students enrolling in the course 33-124
Introduction to Astronomy prompted the Physics department to propose
splitting this course into two different levels.  The current course,
33-124 Introduction to Astronomy, will be revised to be less
quantitative and technical so as to be aimed at students not majoring in
science and engineering.  A new course, 33-224 Stars, Galaxies and the
Universe, will be intended for science and engineering majors and will
require a pre or co-requisite of 33-106 Physics for Science Students I,
33-111 Physics for Engineering Students I or 33-131 Matter and
Interactions I.  Richard Griffiths will teach the new astronomy course.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The proposal for the new course was passed unanimously.

II. PROPOSED CHANGES TO BIOCHEMISTY I (Gordon Rule)

The Biology department proposed that Biochemistry I be offered in the
spring as well as the fall.  The fall course (03-231 Biochemistry I)
will be primarily a course for biology majors, with a prerequisites of
03-121 Modern Biology and a pre or co-requisite of 09-217 Organic
Chemistry I.  The spring course (03-232 Biochemistry I) will accommodate
the different backgrounds of non-majors.  This course will not assume a
background in biology and does not have pre-requisites.  The new spring
course is also an alternative to the fall course for biology majors who
are out of sequence with their courses.

Although the spring course will have a new number, the name will remain
Biochemistry I.  This is to prevent any confusion with students'
application to professional school and to comply with criteria required
for ACS certification.

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The proposal for the new course was passed unanimously.

III. PROPOSAL FOR MINOR IN APPLIED SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING (E. Grotzinger)

The addition of this college-level minor is intended to encourage MCS
students to broaden their exposure to disciplines outside their major
and to attract students from other colleges to modern scientific
research topics.  The minor consists of courses to be taken in four
categories: Non-Introductory Science Requirements, Computational Science
Requirements,  Computational Methods Requirements and Applied Scientific
Computing Research Project.  Rich Holman will be the advisor for this
new minor.

Several aspects of the curriculum were subject to discussion:
* Non-Introductory Science Requirement: Must MCS students take another
course outside their major in addition to the one called for by the MCS
science core requirement?  Since the purpose of this requirement is to
insure a certain level of scientific sophistication, and since it can be
assumed that MCS students will have this sophistication, the committee
agreed that the advisor will be given discretion in deciding this matter
on an individual basis.
* Total units required.  The original proposal called for 18 units each
from the Computational Methods Requirement and Applied Scientific
Research Project.  Because of the potential difficulty in finding
research positions, the committee agreed to revise the proposal to
require a total of 27 combined units from these two categories.  At
least 9 units must be completed from each category.  This revision
reduces the number of units required by the minor by 9.
* Applied Scientific Computing Research Project.  Can research done
elsewhere, during the summer, or as part of another course be applied
toward the research requirement?  The committee agreed to give the
advisor discretion in deciding this matter on an individual basis.  This
provision must be explicit in the wording of the description of this
minor.

The committee debated the usage of "Applied" in the name of this minor. 
It was agreed that Gregg Franklin would be requested to provide the
rationale behind the inclusion of "Applied," and the name of the minor
would be voted on at the next meeting of the College Council.  

COLLEGE COUNCIL ACTION: The proposal with revisions to the curriculum
was passed unanimously.  The name of the minor is pending vote at the
next College Council meeting.  

IV. PERIODIC PREREQUISITE UPDATES (S. Henry)

Discussion of the prerequisites for the Applied Scientific Computing
minor resulted in a proposal from S. Henry that a regular procedure for
prerequisite review and revision be put in place in MCS.  The Committee
on Undergraduate Affairs is to address the issue and make
recommendations.